Information processing apparatus and information processing method

ABSTRACT

A system and method for recommending content to a user. In embodiments of the system and method, one or more content groups is generated, at least one of the content groups including more than one type of content, and a display indicative of the one or more content groups is presented to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent ApplicationJP 2009-200872 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Aug. 31, 2009, theentire content of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus andan information processing method.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, a variety of content such as photo, video, music havebeen used as digital content. On the other hand, with an increase inthe'capacity of a storage medium and an increase in the bandwidth of acommunication line, we have become able to handle a large amount ofcontent.

When a user selects desired content from a plurality of content, thereare a method of visually selecting the desired content from a listindicating the content of the plurality of content, and a method ofsearching for the desired content by using metadata ancillary to thedigital content, for example. However, in the former case, when thenumber of content is large, it is difficult to find the desired content.Moreover, in the latter case, only the result matching the keywordthought of by the user can be derived, so that the user may end upalways selecting the same content. Accordingly, there is proposed amethod of selecting content to be recommended for the user by usinguser's preference information and history information, for example.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, the method of selecting content to be recommended for the userin the related art premises that the user itself desires playback of aspecific type of content such as music. Thus, there was an issue thatonly the content selected from the same type of content using a singlealgorithm was provided.

In particular, for example, in an application for managing multimediasuch as music, video and photo, if content groups to be recommended forthe user can be provided one after another from a variety of content byusing a variety of algorithms, it is conceivable that the application isused in a way totally different from the past, which is, for example,that the user launches the application with a motive such as “there maybe something enjoyable” even without a specific objective such as “tolisten to music” or “to see photos”.

In light of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide an informationprocessing apparatus and an information processing method which arenovel and improved, and which are capable of creating a content groupincluding various types of content by using a variety of algorithms andproviding the content group. The present system and method is providedwith these desires in mind.

The present system and method includes embodiments for recommendingcontent to a user. In such embodiments, one or more content groups isgenerated, at least one of the content groups including more than onetype of content, and a display indicative of the one or more contentgroups is presented to the user.

According to the embodiments described above, the content groupincluding various types of content can be created by using a variety ofalgorithms and can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of aninformation processing system according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal functional configurationof an information processing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of theinformation processing apparatus according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a home screendisplayed by the information processing apparatus according to theembodiment;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the homescreen displayed by the information processing apparatus according tothe embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time when theinformation processing apparatus according to the embodiment displaysthe home screen;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a player screendisplayed by the information processing apparatus according to theembodiment; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time when theinformation processing apparatus according to the embodiment displaysthe player screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to the appended drawings. Note that,in this specification and the appended drawings, structural elementsthat have substantially the same function and structure are denoted withthe same reference numerals, and repeated explanation of thesestructural elements is omitted.

In addition, the description will be made in the following order.

1. Outline of information processing system

2. Functional configuration of information processing apparatus

3. Hardware configuration of information processing apparatus

4. Operation for home screen display of information processing apparatus

5. Operation for player screen display of information processingapparatus

1. Outline of Information Processing System

First, a schematic configuration of an information processing systemaccording to an embodiment of the present invention will be describedwith reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing theschematic configuration of the information processing system accordingto the embodiment of the present invention.

The information processing system according to the embodiment of thepresent invention mainly includes an information processing apparatus10, a home server 20, and an external content providing server 30 andeach of the apparatus is connected via a home network 40 or acommunication network 50.

The information processing apparatus 10 is a device including a functionto play content such as a photo, a video and music. As an example of theinformation processing apparatus 10, a PC (Personal Computer) is shownin FIG. 1. The information processing apparatus 10 is connected to thehome server 20 via the home network 40. Moreover, the informationprocessing apparatus 10 is connected to the external content providingserver 30 via the communication network 50 such as the Internet, forexample.

Here, the home server 20 is connected to the home network 40 and is, forexample, a device including a storage unit for storing therein contentsuch as a photo, a video and music and having a function as a server.Examples of the home server 20 include a recorder 20 a, a PC 20 b, atelevision 20 c, and an audio player 20 d. Here, the home server 20functions as a server but may have a function as a client at the sametime.

Moreover, the content providing server 30 is connected to thecommunication network 50 and is, for example, a device for providingcontent such as photo content, music content, news content, and productinformation content.

The home network 40 is a closed network in a unit such as a home. Forexample, the home network 40 may be a network configured according toDLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance).

The communication network 50 is a wired or wireless transmission line.For example, the communication network 50 may include a public networksuch as a telephone network, a satellite communication network, or theInternet, and/or a leased line network such as various LANs (Local AreaNetworks) including Ethernet (registered trademark), a WAN (Wide AreaNetwork) or an IP-VPN (Internet Protocol-Virtual Private Network).

2. Functional Configuration of Information Processing Apparatus

Next, an internal functional configuration of the information processingapparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is ablock diagram showing the internal functional configuration of theinformation processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

The information processing apparatus 10 mainly includes a communicationunit 102, an input unit 103, an output unit 104, a content storage unit106, a preference analysis database 108, and a control unit 110.

The communication unit 102 is a communication interface having afunction to connect to an external device via a network. In the presentembodiment, the communication unit 102 connects to the home network 40and the communication network 50 and has a function to communicate withthe home server 20 and the content providing server 30.

The input unit 103 is a functional unit for receiving an input operationof a user on the information processing apparatus 10. The input unit 103includes, for example, an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard andan input control circuit for generating an input signal based on theinput by the user and for outputting the signal to the control unit 110.Moreover, in the case where the input device is an external device, theinput unit 103 may include a connection interface with the input deviceand the input control circuit.

The output unit 104 may include a display device, an audio output deviceand the like or may include an output interface to the display deviceand the audio output device, a data conversion circuit and the like. Inthe present embodiment, the output unit 104 displays information andoutputs sound to the user according to the control of an output controlunit 1104.

The content storage unit 106 is a storage unit for storing thereincontent data such as photo content, video content and music content, forexample. The content storage unit 106 may be a recording medium such asa HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or a flash memory, for example.

The preference analysis database 108 is a database that has accumulateduser's preference information. The preference analysis database 108accumulates, based on the content selected by the user, informationindicating a trend of the content preferred by the user. Moreover,search history information in the Internet or the like may be used, forexample. In the present embodiment, information of the played content isreflected in the preference analysis database 108.

The control unit 110 has a function to control the overall operationswithin the information processing apparatus according to a variety ofprograms. In the present embodiment, the control unit 110 has a functionto control the operations of the communication unit 102, the input unit103, the output unit 104, the content storage unit 106, and thepreference analysis database 108. Moreover, the control unit 110 mainlyincludes a content collection unit 1101, a basic data acquisition unit1102, a content group creation control unit 1103, the output controlunit 1104, and a feedback control unit 1105. These functional units areseparated just for the convenience of the description, and thus theoperations of the plurality of functional units may be described in thesame program or, as a matter of course, in different programs, and alsoa way of separation can be variously designed.

The content collection unit 1101 has a function to collect a pluralityof types of content to be provided for the user. The content collectionunit 1101 may collect various types of content stored in the home server20 via the communication unit 102 and the home network 40 as well ascollect content from the content storage unit 106. Moreover, the contentcollection unit 1101 may collect content stored in the content providingserver 30 via the communication unit 102 and the communication network50. At this time, the content collection unit 1101 may collect contentonly from a preset content providing server 30 or may collect content bysearching for the content providing server 30 from which the content canbe collected.

The basic data acquisition unit 1102 has a function to obtain basic datafor setting a creation logic. The basic data acquisition unit 1102 mayobtain necessary basic data according to a situation. Here, the exampleof the basic data include date and time information, preferenceinformation stored in the preference analysis database 108, meta data ofthe content collected by the content collection unit 1101, and meta dataof the content on play.

The content group creation control unit 1103 creates a content group inwhich content to be recommended for the user is assembled from aplurality of content having been collected by the content collectionunit 1101. At this time, the content group creation control unit 1103refers to the basic data obtained by the basic data acquisition unit1102, chooses an algorithm, and sets the creation logic for creating thecontent group. Then, the content group creation control unit 1103creates the content group including a plurality of types of content fromthe collected plurality of content by using the algorithm based on theset creation logic.

In the case of providing only one content group at a time to the user,the content group creation control unit 1103 sets, at the time ofsetting the creation logic, the creation logic so that the creationlogic randomly changes at each time of the content group creation. Inthis case, the content group creation control unit 1103 may storeseveral records of the creation logics and may set the creation logic byusing the information so that the creation logic randomly changes.Moreover, the content group creation control unit 1103 may set thecreation logic by using an existing algorithm for random selection.Further, the content group creation control unit may randomly choose analgorithm to use for creating one or more content groups.

Moreover, in the case of providing a plurality of content groups at atime to the user, the content group creation control unit 1103 may setthe creation logic and the algorithm by further considering the creationlogics of the other content groups in the plurality of content groupsprovided at each time of the content group creation. For example, thecontent group creation control unit 1103 sets the creation logics sothat the creation logics of the plurality of content groups displayed ata time are not duplicated.

Furthermore, when the content group creation control unit 1103 hasdetected that the user has input a content group re-creation instructionby using the input unit 103, the content group creation control unit1103 sets an algorithm and a creation logic again and creates a contentgroup.

The output control unit 1104 controls the output of an image to thedisplay device and the output of sound to the audio output device, forexample. Moreover, the output control unit 1104 may also controlplayback (decode) processing for the output as necessary. Here, thedisplay device and the audio output device may be embedded in theinformation processing apparatus 10 or may be externally connected tothe information processing apparatus 10.

The feedback control unit 1105 gives feedback of the user's inputinformation to the preference information. For example, when the userselects a content group to be played from the displayed content groups,information on the selection is converted into data in a form storablein the preference analysis database 108 and stores the data in thepreference analysis database 108.

3. Hardware Configuration of Information Processing Apparatus

There has been described above the functional configuration of theinformation processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment.Next, there will be described here an example of a hardwareconfiguration for realizing each of the functions of the informationprocessing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is ablock diagram showing the example of the hardware configuration of theinformation processing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of thepresent invention.

The information processing apparatus 10 includes a CPU (CentralProcessing Unit) 802, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 804, a RAM (Random AccessMemory) 806, and a host bus 808 a. Furthermore, the informationprocessing apparatus 10 includes a bridge 808, an external bus 808 b, aninterface 810, an input device 812, an output device 814, a storagedevice (HDD) 816, a drive 818, a connection port 820, and acommunication device 822.

The CPU 802 functions as an arithmetic processing device and a controldevice and controls the overall operations within the apparatusaccording to a variety of programs. Moreover, the CPU 802 may be amicroprocessor. The ROM 804 stores therein programs, calculationparameters and the like used by the CPU 802. The RAM 806 temporarilystores therein programs used in the execution of the CPU 802 andparameters that change appropriately in the execution, and the like.These are interconnected via the host bus 808 a including a CPU bus andthe like. The CPU 802 executes the programs stored in the ROM 804, thestorage device 816 and the like, thereby executing processing performedin each of the blocks in FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, for example. The CPU 802corresponds to the control unit 110 in FIG. 2.

The host bus 808 a is connected to the external bus 808 b such as a PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect/Interface) bus via the bridge 808. Inaddition, the host bus 808 a, the bridge 808, and the external bus 808 bare not necessarily configured separately and the functions thereof maybe mounted on one bus.

The input device 812 includes, for example, an input means for a user toinput information, such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, a button,a microphone, a switch, and a lever, and an input control circuit forgenerating an input signal based on the input by the user and foroutputting the input signal to the CPU 802. By performing a variety ofoperations with the input device 812, various types of data can be inputand an instruction for processing operation can be given. The inputdevice 812 corresponds to the input unit 103 in FIG. 2.

The output device 814 includes, for example, a display device such as aCRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display device, a liquid crystal display (LCD)device, an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) device and a lamp, andan audio output device such as a speaker and a headphone. The outputdevice 814 outputs reproduced content, for example. Specifically, thedisplay device displays a variety of information such as reproducedvideo data in the form of text or image. On the other hand, the audiooutput device converts reproduced audio data or the like into sound andoutputs the sound. The output device 814 corresponds to the output unit104 in FIG. 2.

The storage device 816 includes a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), for example.The storage device 816 drives the HDD and stores therein the programs orvarious types of data executed by the CPU 802. Moreover, the storagedevice 816 may include a storage medium, a recording device forrecording data in the storage medium, a reading device for reading outthe data from the storage medium, and a deleting device for deleting thedata recorded in the storage medium. The storage device 816 maycorrespond to the content storage unit 106 and the preference analysisdatabase 108 in FIG. 2.

The drive 818 is a reader/writer for storage medium and is embedded orattached outside. The drive 818 can read and write data from and to anattached removable recording medium such as a magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory. In addition,the content storage unit 106 and the preference analysis database 108 inFIG. 2 may be realized as the removable recording medium from and towhich the data is read and written by the drive 818.

The connection port 820 is an interface connected to an external deviceand may be a connection port capable of transmitting data to theexternal device via a HDMI, for example.

The communication device 822 is a communication interface including acommunication device for connecting to the home network 40 and thecommunication network 50, for example. Moreover, the communicationdevice 822 may be a communication device compatible with a wireless LAN(Local Area Network), a communication device compatible with a wirelessUSB, or a wire communication device that performs wired communication.The communication device 822 realizes the communication function of thecommunication unit 102 in FIG. 2.

4. Operation for Home Screen Display of Information Processing Apparatus

Next, an operation of the information processing apparatus 10 accordingto the present embodiment at the time of displaying a home screen willbe described by using FIGS. 4 to 6. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagramshowing an example of the home screen displayed by the informationprocessing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentinvention. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing another example ofthe home screen displayed by the information processing apparatus 10according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is aflowchart showing the operation at the time when the informationprocessing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentinvention displays the home screen.

First, the structure of the example of the home screen displayed by theinformation processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodimentwill be described by using FIG. 4. A home screen 2000 is a screendisplayed by launching an application installed in the informationprocessing apparatus 10. There is displayed on the background of thehome screen 2000 photo content stored in any one of the content storageunit 106, the home server 20, and the content providing server 30. Thephoto content displayed on the background is randomly changed. Forexample, the photo content displayed on the background may be changedevery time the user performs operation or may be changed atpredetermined time intervals.

Moreover, there is displayed on the home screen 2000 icons 220corresponding to respective content groups which the content groupcreation control unit 1103 has created by collecting content to berecommended for the user. In the case where a plurality of the contentgroups 220 are displayed, the plurality of the content groups 220 aredisplayed in a random arrangement so that the display positions of thecontent groups 220 do not affect user's selection of a content group.The content groups 220 in the present embodiment include various typesof content and are created by using a variety of algorithms. In thismanner, by arranging the content groups 220 so that the displaypositions thereof do not determine the priority of the selection, thecontent groups 220 with different attributes can be recommended for theuser fairly and clearly, which thus allows for increase in user'sfreedom of selection.

It should be noted that icons 220 of FIG. 4 are illustrative of one wayin which content groups can be represented. More generally, contentgroup representations may include one or more of text, graphics, photosand video. Thus, for example, a content group may be represented by agraphic with descriptive text. For purposes of brevity, the variousalternative representations that may be used to designate content groupsmay be collectively referred to as “icons.”

When the user has input a content group re-creation instruction bypushing a next recommendation button 212, all of the plurality ofcontent groups 220 displayed on the home screen 2000 are re-created andre-displayed. By this, the user can display the next candidates evenwhen there is no desired content group 220 among the recommended contentgroups 220, which thus allows for increase in user's freedom ofselection.

Moreover, buttons for switching screens are arranged on the top of thehome screen 2000 and for example, a home button 202, a photo/videobutton 204, a music button 206, a player button 208, and a menu button210 are displayed. By the home button 202 being pushed, a screenswitches to the home screen. Moreover, by the photo/video button 204being pushed, a screen switches to a display screen (not shown infigures) of a list of photo content and video content. By the musicbutton 206 being pushed, a screen switches to a display screen (notshown in figures) of a list of music content. By the player button 208being pushed, a screen switches to a player screen below, shown in FIG.7. Moreover, also by the user selecting a content group, a screenswitches to the player screen. Moreover, by the menu button 210 beingpushed, a screen switches to a menu screen (not shown in figures).

Next, another example of the home screen displayed by the informationprocessing apparatus 10 will be described by using FIG. 5. In addition,the home screen 2000 shown in FIG. 4 and a home screen 2100 shown inFIG. 5 are only different in display method, and thus description on thecommon points will be omitted.

The home screen 2100 is displayed by performing operation of forming thecontent groups 220 into lines, from the home screen 2000 shown in FIG.4. The content groups 220 are randomly arranged on the home screen 2000,but the user sometimes wants to see the content groups 220 in lines.When the user performs the operation of forming the content groups 220into lines in the situation where there is displayed the home screen2000 on which the content groups 220 are randomly arranged, the contentgroups 220 are displayed in lines as shown in the home screen 2100. Foreach of the content groups 220, a thumbnail image and a creation logictherebelow are displayed.

Next, an operation of the information processing apparatus 10 at thetime of displaying the home screen 2000 in FIG. 4 will be described byusing FIG. 6. In the description, the functional units of theinformation processing apparatus 10 will be described by using referencenumerals in FIG. 2.

First, the basic data acquisition unit 1102 obtains basic data forsetting a content group creation logic (S102). The basic data includesdate and time information, preference information and the like. Next,the content collection unit 1101 collects content (S104). The contentcollection unit 1101 collects content stored in the content storage unit106, the home server 20, and the content providing server 30.

Next, the content group creation control unit 1103 sets an algorithm anda creation logic for content group creation (S106). This may includechoosing an algorithm and setting the creation logic, randomly choosingan algorithm and randomly setting the creation logic, or setting analgorithm and randomly choosing the creation logic. In any event, thecreation logic is what is described below the thumbnail of each of thecontent groups 220 in FIG. 5, for example. Here, the content groupcreation control unit 1103 may set the creation logic by using the basicdata obtained by the basic data acquisition unit 1102. For example, acreation logic such as “photos and videos of August 2009” is set fromthe current date. Moreover, based on the preference information, acreation logic such as “currently recommended artists” may be set. Atthis time, in the case of creating the content group 220 based on thelogic of “photos and videos of August 2009”, an analysis algorithm forcontent metadata is used, for example. Moreover, in the case of creatingthe content group 220 based on the logic of “currently recommendedartists”, an analysis algorithm for preference information is used, forexample. Other than those, in the case of using a creation logic of“music recommended for morning”, for example, analysis of data itselfmay be performed by using a melody analysis algorithm (twelve-toneanalysis).

Then, the content group creation control unit 1103 creates a contentgroup by using the set algorithm based on the set creation logic (S108).For example, in the case where nine content groups are set to beprovided for the user as shown in FIG. 4, the content group creationcontrol unit 1103 determines whether to further create a content group(S110). The determination may be based on whether the content groupcreation has been performed for a predetermined number of times, forexample. Then, in the case of further creating the content group 220,the content group creation control unit 1103 returns to the step S106and repeats the processing from the step S106 to the step S108.

In the case where it is determined, in the step S110, not to create anymore content group because of reaching the predetermined number oftimes, the output control unit 1104 causes the content groups 220 thathave been created by then to be displayed on the home screen (S112).

Then, the user can select the provided content groups 220. Moreover, inthe case where there is no content group 220 desired to be played amongthe provided content groups 220, the content groups can be re-created bypushing the next recommendation button 212.

Here, the content group creation control unit 1103 determines whetherthe user has input a content group re-creation instruction by pushingthe next recommendation button 212 (S114), and in the case where thecontent group re-creation instruction has been input, the content groupcreation control unit 1103 returns to the step S106 and performs theprocessing of the step S106 to the step S112 again. If the user has notpushed the next recommendation button 212, whether there is a selectioninput of a content group is determined subsequently (S116). While theuser does not perform the selection input of a content group, the homescreen 2000 remains displayed. Then, when the user selects a specificcontent group from among the provided content groups, the output controlunit 1104 plays the selected content group (S118). At this time, theoutput control unit 1104 causes the display device to display the playerscreen 3000 shown in FIG. 7, for example.

On the other hand, the feedback control unit 1105 updates the preferenceanalysis database 108 based on information of the played content (S120).

As described above, when displaying the home screen 2000, theinformation processing apparatus 10 provides the content group in whichthe content to be recommended for the user is assembled. A plurality oftypes of content is included in the content group, which thus allows adiscovery of content to progress more dynamically.

5. Operation for Player Screen Display of Information ProcessingApparatus

Next, an operation at the time when the information processing apparatus10 displays the player screen will be described by using FIG. 7 and FIG.8. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the playerscreen displayed by the information processing apparatus according tothe embodiment of the present invention. Moreover, FIG. 8 is a flowchartshowing the operation at the time when the information processingapparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention displaysthe player screen.

First, the example of the player screen displayed by the informationprocessing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will bedescribed. In addition, menus for switching screens displayed on the topof the screen are the same as those in FIG. 4 and thus are denoted withthe same reference numerals, and thereby a description thereof will beomitted.

FIG. 7 assumes a situation where the user selects a content group 220 c(refer to the reference numeral in FIG. 5) from the content groups 220displayed on the home screen 2000 in FIG. 4.

At this time, on the player screen 3000, photo content 302 which is maincontent is displayed in a slide show. Moreover, music content assub-content is played as BGM. Here, the main content is content whichthe user mainly views and/or listens to. For example, the main contentmay be content played by being selected by the user. Moreover, forexample, the main content may be defined as content displayed occupyingthe major part of the screen display. Moreover, the sub-content iscontent provided for the user at the same time as the main content,which is a different type of content from the main content.

Currently, a music content group 304 is played as the sub-content. Atthis time, there are displayed in a mix on a related content column onthe extreme right, content groups 320 related to the photo content 302which is the main content and content groups 320 related to a “title A”which is the content on play among the music content group 304 which isthe sub-content.

Here, when the playback of the “title A” among the music content group304 is completed and a “title B” is played subsequently, the pluralityof content groups 320 displayed as the related content are changed tothose including content groups related to the “title B” which is themusic content on play. Moreover, similarly, in the case where the playedcontent is changed by a user's operation, the plurality of contentgroups 320 displayed as the related content are changed to thoseincluding content groups related to the content on play, for example.

Here, each of the plurality of content groups 320 displayed as therelated content has been created based on the creation logic set at thetime when the content group was created. For example, a content group320 a is a content group created based on a creation logic of “photosand videos taken in the year when the BGM was released”. The creationlogic is, in other words, “photos and videos taken in 2005”. Even whilethe user views the photos of the main content, by hearing a music inBGM, the user may unexpectedly recall the time when the music was heardthroughout the town. At such a time, the user may be interested inphotos and videos taken at the time which the user recalls if they aredisplayed as the related content. Accordingly, the content group createdby using the creation logic related to the sub-content is provided asthe related content.

Moreover, a content group 320 b is a content group created based on acreation logic of “photos and videos near the month when the maincontent was taken”. If further specified, the creation logic is “photosand videos taken in July 2009”.

As described above, the creation logic may be related to the maincontent or may be related to the sub-content. Moreover, content to beselected may be photo content, music content, video content, newscontent or product information content, for example. By the plurality ofcontent being recommended in parallel in this manner, there is an effectthat the user has a better chance to find desired content. Moreover, bythe plurality of content being proposed in the form of a package as thecontent group, the user has a further better chance to find desiredcontent.

Next, the operation of the information processing apparatus 10 at thetime of displaying the player screen 3000 in FIG. 7 will be described byusing FIG. 8. In the description, the functional units of theinformation processing apparatus 10 will be described by using thereference numerals in FIG. 2.

First, it is premised that the processing in the flowchart in FIG. 6 hasbeen performed, that content has been collected, and that content or acontent group to be played has been selected.

First, the basic data acquisition unit 1102 obtains basic data (S202).The basic data includes date and time information, preferenceinformation, and metadata of the content on play, for example.

Then, the content group creation control unit 1103 sets an algorithm anda creation logic for creating a content group (S204). This may includechoosing an algorithm and setting the creation logic, randomly choosingan algorithm and randomly setting the creation logic, or setting analgorithm and randomly choosing the creation logic. In any event, thecreation logic may be related to the main content. Moreover, thecreation logic may be related to the sub-content. Moreover, in the caseof providing the plurality of content groups 320 at a time, as shown inFIG. 7, the content group creation control unit 1103 may set creationlogics so that the plurality of content groups 320 include contentgroups created based on creation logics related to the main content andcontent groups created based on creation logics related to thesub-content. Moreover, concerning the algorithm, a variety of algorithmssuch as a metadata analysis algorithm, an analysis algorithm forpreference information, and a melody analysis algorithm can be used, asdescribed in the operation at the time of displaying the home screen2000.

Then, the content group creation control unit 1103 creates a contentgroup by using the set algorithm based on the set creation logic (S206).For example, as shown in FIG. 7, in the case where six content groupsare set to be provided as the related content for the user, the contentgroup creation control unit 1103 determines whether to further create acontent group (S208). Then, in the case of further creating a contentgroup, the content group creation control unit 1103 returns to the stepS204 and repeats the processing from the step S204 to the step S206.

In the case where it is determined, in the step S208, not to create anymore content group because of reaching a predetermined number of times,the output control unit 1104 causes the content groups that have beencreated by then to be displayed on the player screen 3000 (S210).

Through the processing described above, the content groups 320 aredisplayed as the related content on the player screen 3000 as shown inFIG. 7. While in this state, in the case where music content played asBGM is changed to the next music, so that the content on play ischanged, or in the case where content on play is changed according to auser's operation, the content group creation control unit 1103determines whether the content on play has been changed (S212), and inthe case the content on play has been changed for the reason such asabove, the content group creation control unit 1103 returns to the stepS202. Then, the processing from the step S202 to the step S210 isrepeated. At this time, in the basic data acquisition step of the stepS202, the basic data acquisition unit 1102 obtains metadata of thechanged content on play.

Then, in the case where it is determined in the step S212 that thecontent on play has not been changed, the output control unit 1104determines whether the user has performed a selection input of a contentgroup (S214), and if it is detected that the user has performed theselection input of a content group, the output control unit 1104 playsthe selected content group (S216). On the other hand, the feedbackcontrol unit 1105 updates the updates the preference analysis database108 based on information of the played content (S218).

As described above, the information processing apparatus 10 according tothe present embodiment equally handles the plurality of different typesof content, selects an optimal algorithm from among the plurality oftypes of algorithms, and provides for the user the content in the formof a package as the content group in which the content to be recommendedfor the user is assembled from the plurality of types of content. Atthis time, the content group includes the plurality of types of content.Accordingly, there is an effect that user's freedom of selectionincreases. At this time, the content group may be provided for the user,being displayed on the screen display along with the thumbnail image ofthe content group and the text indicating the creation logic of thecontent group. The user can be informed of the content of the contentgroup by seeing the text indicating the creation logic or the image.

Moreover, on the player screen, content groups related to both of themain content and the sub-content are provided as the related content. Inthe related art, even in the case where main content and sub-content areprovided at the same time, only the content related to the main contentwas provided. However, the user should sometimes potentially have aninterest in content related to the sub-content, and the presentinvention meets that need.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed in the foregoing with reference to the drawings, the presentinvention is not limited thereto. It should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various modifications, combinations,sub-combinations and alterations may occur depending on designrequirements and other factors insofar as they are within the scope ofthe appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

For example, in the aforementioned embodiment, the main content is thephoto content and the sub-content is the music content, but the presentinvention is not limited thereto. For example, the main content may bemusic content and the sub-content may be photo content. Moreover, it ispossible that the main content is video content and the sub-content isphoto content.

Moreover, for example, in the aforementioned embodiment, also in thecase of playing the content obtained from the content providing server30, the playback is performed on the same player screen, but the presentinvention is not limited to such example. For example, the contentobtained from the content providing server 30 may be played by launchinga separate browser.

In addition, in the present specification, the steps described in theflowcharts include not only processing steps carried out in time seriesin the described order but also processing steps carried out in parallelor individually and not necessarily in time series. Moreover, the orderof the processing steps carried out in time series can be alsoappropriately changed in some cases, of course.

1. A method for recommending content to a user, comprising: generatingone or more content groups, at least one of the content groups includingmore than one type of content; and presenting to the user a displayindicative of the one or more content groups.
 2. The method as claimedin claim 1, wherein generating the one or more content groups comprisesrandomly generating a content group creation logic and generating theone or more content groups based on the randomly generated content groupcreation logic.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein generatingthe one or more content groups comprises randomly choosing an algorithmand generating the one or more content groups based on the randomlychosen algorithm.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereingenerating the one or more content groups comprises randomly generatinga content group creation logic and randomly choosing an algorithm, andgenerating the one or more content groups based on the randomlygenerated content group creation logic and randomly chosen algorithm. 5.The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the more than one type ofcontent comprises at least one type of content from the group consistingof video content, photo content, and audio content.
 6. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein presenting to the user a display indicativeof the one or more content groups comprises presenting to the user adisplay simultaneously indicative of two or more content groups.
 7. Themethod as claimed in claim 6, wherein presenting to the user a displaysimultaneously indicative of two or more content groups comprisespresenting to the user a display simultaneously indicative of two ormore content groups generated according to respective content groupcreation logics.
 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein more thanone content group is generated, and presenting to the user a displayindicative of the one or more content groups comprises presenting to theuser a plurality of icons respectively designating the generated contentgroups.
 9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein generating one ormore content groups comprises generating one or more content groupsbased on user preference information.
 10. A system for recommendingcontent to a user, comprising: at least one processor for generating oneor more content groups, at least one of the content groups includingmore than one type of content; and a display for presenting to the userinformation indicative of the one or more content groups.
 11. The systemas claimed in claim 10, wherein generating the one or more contentgroups comprises randomly generating a content group creation logic andgenerating the one or more content groups based on the randomlygenerated content group creation logic.
 12. The system as claimed inclaim 10, wherein generating the one or more content groups comprisesrandomly choosing an algorithm and generating the one or more contentgroups based on the randomly chosen algorithm.
 13. The system as claimedin claim 10, wherein generating the one or more content groups comprisesrandomly generating a content group creation logic and randomly choosingan algorithm, and generating the one or more content groups based on therandomly generated content group creation logic and randomly chosenalgorithm.
 14. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the more thanone type of content comprises at least one type of content from thegroup consisting of video content, photo content, and audio content. 15.The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein presenting to the userinformation indicative of the one or more content groups comprisespresenting to the user information simultaneously indicative of two ormore content groups.
 16. The system as claimed in claim 15, whereinpresenting to the user information simultaneously indicative of two ormore content groups comprises presenting to the user informationsimultaneously indicative of two or more content groups generatedaccording to respective content group creation logics.
 17. The system asclaimed in claim 10, wherein more than one content group is generated,and presenting to the user information indicative of the one or morecontent groups comprises presenting to the user a plurality of iconsrespectively designating the generated content groups.
 18. The system asclaimed in claim 10, wherein generating one or more content groupscomprises generating one or more content groups based on user preferenceinformation.
 19. A computer-readable non-transitory medium storing acomputer-readable program for implementing a method of recommendingcontent to a user, the method comprising: generating one or more contentgroups, at least one of the content groups including more than one typeof content; and presenting to the user a display indicative of the oneor more content groups.
 20. The computer-readable medium as claimed inclaim 19, wherein generating the one or more content groups comprisesrandomly generating a content group creation logic and generating theone or more content groups based on the randomly generated content groupcreation logic.